Intel socket decision may kill PC soul

For many people, part of the PC's charm was that is was possible to tailor it to your own specifications. You could upgrade or replace the mainboard alone, or the processor or both.

But if rumours of an Intel change of tack prove true, consumers who like to tinker with the insides of their boxes will no longer be able to do that. If one of those components fails after adoption of technology that permanently attaches them together, there will be no alternative but to send both to landfill.

Several news sites last week started running stories that Intel was meeting with mainboard and computer manufacturers to inform them that their next-generation “Broadwell” chip would be socket-less.

The socket refers to the way that the processor can be mounted by a cradle to the mainboard. An array of pin connectors then touch the contact points on the processor. If the processor is the brain of the computer then these contacts might represent the neck.

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The majority of current PCs use a socket design that allows for the user to replace and upgrade the processor at will. The flexibility to alter and extend the system has been a key differentiator between the PC and other computer systems from the beginning and is often considered to be one of the reasons for its wide adoption and success.

If reports are to be believed - at the time of writing there was no official confirmation from Intel - Broadwell will not continue this trend and will instead use a ball grid array (BGA), which is directly and permanently attached to the system board.

There are several advantage to BGAs. They take up less room, which is why laptops and tablets use them. With less parts, they are slightly cheaper for mass-producing PC manufacturers. Without a socket as an intermediary, there are improvements in heat dissipation which allows for components to be put closer together.

However, the socket-less design requires more sophisticated hardware to attach the processor to the mainboard, making it next to impossible to remove. This design choice effectively excludes small PC builders, home enthusiasts and bespoke system manufacturing from making their own decisions on how best to combine these core components.

I am curious as to how the mainboard manufacturers are going to respond. This is a bit of a double-edged sword - the ability to upgrade processors independently from the mainboard increased a system's longevity. Now having to upgrade both may net them some additional mainboard sales.

At the same time this decision binds the mainboard manufacturers closer to Intel - literally - and favours mass PC producers, as it discourages diversity. Intel competitor AMD could ride in here on a white horse, but unfortunately it is limited by its own struggles. Intel could not have timed this better and the mainboard makers may not have much of a say any more.

Ultimately if Intel takes the socket-less option, we will be closer to making the humble PC just another black box. If a move to a processor design that binds it to the mainboard is indeed imminent, then I for one am a bit sad that the PC will lose a feature central to its character.

72 comments so far

Signed OS only, non-removable parts, DRM in almost everything.Almost like someone(s) don't like people having any freedom or privacy at all.cf Cory Doctrow War On General Purpose Computing

My tinfoil hat is made of lead before you ask and that could be a problem in itself ;)

Commenter

tqft

Date and time

December 03, 2012, 10:16AM

This move was inevitable. Apple already does it and the smartphone in your pocket (that has more computing power than a PC from five or six years ago) does not have a removable processor. Apple has lead the market in "walled garden" thinking and implementation. Soon, there will be absolutely no removable or replaceable parts in their products. It's stopped being a factor for the vast majority of users and the days when people behaved like hobbyists, selecting parts and building a machine are definitely on the wane. There is so much computing power even in portable computers now that the hardware has become a secondary consideration. This situation will be exploited by manufacturers and software suppliers to create more waled gardens a-la Apple. MS must be green with envy how they've leveraged their user base off fanbois and into the mainstream buyers, all of whom have never thought to question if they can load a non Apple approved app or change a component to a non Apple one. People dont give a toss, they just want it to work.

Commenter

Violent_Primate

Date and time

December 03, 2012, 2:31PM

Violent_Primate people do indeed give a toss. I regret talking about Apple because it always degrades into a Holden/Ford bs rant but I must to address your comment about removable parts and technology. One of the biggest selling points of most non-Apple smartphones is the ability to change the battery and add additional memory, that is one of the main reasons people choose not to buy Apple phones. Just yesterday a friend of mine bought a tablet for each of his 3 kids, he's a completely non-tech person but he liked the idea that you can add additional memory to a Samsung Galaxy tab so that's the one he bought. Being able to swap out a processor or motherboard really does extend the life of the parts and it's a shame to see that go but I guess for now, RAM, video processor, hard drives etc are still customisable. PS I really hope less and less old technology is going to land fill, send it to a reputable e-waste please.

Commenter

Dave

Location

Sydney

Date and time

December 03, 2012, 5:49PM

Dave, you're in the minority mate. I can't think of a single female user I know who would want to add more ram or switch processors in their devices. Equally, over 90% of the males I know would feel the same. I agree with the battery situation though. I have repaired several Apple devices for friends and family and the irritation of having the battery as a non-servicable part is immense. I have been a hobbyist computer builder in the past and if I ever wanted a new desktop machine I might select some nice components and do a build. When I get a new PC for anyone at work, I just give the shop the spec and go pick up the machine. With any quad core processor, I need no more computing cycles for any work that my users are likely to undertake. If the processor was on a BGA and non removable, I'd just choose the mobo with the processor I needed. Even if the RAM was on BGA, 2 to 4 gigs would cover anything I need. Chances all this would be optimised to work together and I'd have a pretty decent machine.

Commenter

Violent_Primate

Date and time

December 04, 2012, 9:11AM

I don't think it will affect the "enthusiast" end of the market. I don't see the server market adopting non-socketed systems. They don't want to end up with systems where one failed CPU means a multisocketed system will be thrown out. Which means sockets such as LGA2011 will remain, and blowing cores and/or cache blocks to produce a few binned "pro-sumer" chips will be a way to do cost-recovery on chips that would otherwise be unsellable (though the quantities are low compared to server processors).

Consumer chips might as well go on board. The stand-alone PC is dying in the face of tablets, and the move is towards a notebook in a box.

The only hole is the mid gamer market who are currently going for the fast i5s. As this in AMD's sweet spot, I don't imagine Intel will leave it open.

Commenter

Matt

Location

Glebe

Date and time

December 04, 2012, 10:26AM

I don't think it will have much of an impact. In theory I have always considered this a good feature. In practice every time I have decided to upgrade it turned out that that the new components where no longer compatible with my existing system board anyway. Not just the processor but the graphics card and memory chips as well.

Commenter

Konrad

Location

Sydney

Date and time

December 03, 2012, 10:29AM

This. AMD has been pretty good about maintaining compatibility between its processor revisions; Intel, on the other hand, has tended to come out with a new socket every time. So short of making relatively small leaps in CPU power (ie, from one very outdated CPU to a slightly less outdated CPU), you pretty much had to buy a new motherboard anyway.

I don't see this changing the market very much at all.

Commenter

sjl

Date and time

December 03, 2012, 2:57PM

Likewise. I often replace hard-drives (they're never big enough), sometimes replace memory, and swap out graphics and other cards from time to time, but I haven't upgraded a CPU since the 90s.

And besides, compared to other recent anti-DIY/freedom developments this seems trivial. If you're looking for things to worry about I'd look no further than secureboot (aka trusted computing mark II), digital restrictions management, and the pernicious idea that the manufacturer can tell you what you can and cannot do in terms of modding hardware that you own (chipping, reverse engineering, DRM bypassing etc).

Commenter

Fred

Date and time

December 04, 2012, 9:31AM

I think the benefits of this really far outweigh the negatives. This reduces the thought that has to be put in regarding the potential for bottleneck when putting together a system and should really already have been determined by an engineer with more knowledge then the majority of enthusiasts or PC technicians that are currently putting the components together. I do wonder the percentage of people who actually take advantage of upgradability of their PCs these days anyway. Usually, it doesn't seem worth the money to upgrade the CPU unless you are going to upgrade the RAM and GPU so you are getting the most out of it if you're not upgrading every few months. I might be a slow upgrader, but only upgrade every few years, so there is usually a bunch of new specifications for all components by then.

Commenter

AM

Date and time

December 03, 2012, 11:00AM

I get what your saying, I think its more so,

I can go onto the internet, read up a million different reviews on what parts work best with certain things. Maybe i want less RAM but faster frequency on it?

Little things like that.

But i think its also my own way of being unique as in, I picked every single part in my computer because I did the research (mainly through toms hardware guide) and there for I believe I have the best PC on the market (well at the time, though that being said it still nocks the socks of most of my mates pre built crap)

Plus im supporting small business, this is just another way of giving rise to monopolies

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